Welcome

"What unites us is more important than what divides us."Welcome to the Lockport NY discussion blog. An idea grown out of the old LUSJ forums aimed at giving a permanent home to discussions on renewal, investment, growth and preservation toward creating a great place to live. Topics pertaining to the city and town of Lockport NY, headlines from the Lockport Journal/Buffalo News along with diverging views on them are welcomed and encouraged. If you have your own Lockport-centric blog, let me know. I'll happily link to it and participate. Want a topic addressed and opened for comment? Send me an email. -MJ

A resident on Irving Street is arguing with city hall over street parking permits and/or being allowed to have a tenant of her 2-family house park on the right of way between the street and sidewalk. City hall appears to be very stingy in handing out the $40 street parking permits as LUSJ reports only currently 14 are issued. But they counter with the fact that those 14 are out of 17 requests.

As widely seen, most municipalities in Erie and Niagara county have no overnight parking in the winter. Buffalo I know is one exception and relies on alternating sides. Growing up on the east side of Buffalo I was familiar with that system and the mess that it usually left throughout the winter. If residents of a municipality that prohibits on-street parking are able to survive the 4 months of Nov-Mar should they not be able to use the same system for the other 8 months?

I will admit it can be a 60-180 second pain in the ass to shuffle vehicles in the driveway. I also know I'd be more inclined to leave my rusty chore truck "out of my way" in the street while leaving the two newer vehicles in the driveway. But I do also enjoy the cleaner streets and the open night vistas that no on-street overnight parking allows. I do feel much safer walking the dog after dark without being wedged between a wall of cars on the streets and houses on the lots.

“We’re talking about a four-hour window,” Pasceri said. “For four hours, that’swhen all the streets would be plowed, when all the crime would happen? I don’tbelieve it.”

This statement, while "true", does not fully represent reality. It is not as if the streets are filled with cars until 2AM and they are then moved to off-street parking. The no overnight ensures a vast number of vehicles are off the street long before the 2AM cut-off.

I am not expert in parking by any means. It is one of my more passionate subjects yet I have yet to obtain any books on it. Its value and correct implimantation is often misunderstood. I do look forward to obtaining a copy of The High Cost of Free Parking after I finish 4 books that I currently have queued up. If an area is not paved to hell and back it is often construed as inconvenient or not resident friendly etc. I feel that is a false assumption. We can see the type of environments that it gives us. This will pry have to be a topic I'll have to revisit down the road once I am able to read up on it a bit and become more informed.

There is pry a solution somewhere. One could pry involve higher permit fees to curb misuse (overuse) with the funds going back into infrastructure improvements on the streets they are used on. Possibly allow landlords to apply for them so they can distribute the cost of the permit over the 12 month rental period for their tenants? Your thoughts?

UPDATE: 12-15-2008:

LUSJ reporting that after deliberations the city decided to keep the parking system as is.

UPDATE: 12-16-2008LUSJ reporting a possible softening stance. That the council decided to tell the traffic board to let them decide seems out of place. Noted this portion:

After a weekend drive around the city really looking at residents’ parking arrangements, he added, he may go next to the zoning board and ask it to not treat every front-yard parking variance request the same.

Please do not allow zoning variances for front yard parking. Street parking way before front yard parking should be a given every where but one lane alleys. If there are to be more permits handed out. Make sure the fees go to street improvements.

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comments:

I think one sided parking for streets that are wide enough to handle it should be allowed. Absolutely in no circumstances should they allow this parking on the front lawn, it looks horrible and is probably a fire/safety hazard as well. I'd be pretty pissed if my neighbors were parking on their front lawns. However, something Buffalo does have is snow overflow lots where it's free to park overnight during the snow removal seasons - does Lockport have those? I just moved here so I'm not sure. Either way, in this case, I think she either needs to work it out with her tenant or find an alternate parking situation within the law because the front yard thing is awful.

Don't know what the solution is. People in my neighborhood park in front yard. Not surprisingly they are converted apartments. Looks bad but I was guilty of it as well. Parents house had 2 car driveway w/ 4 cars. Got tickets for parking in right of way couple of times ($25?). What else could we do.. ended up parking in neighbors driveways and those of local businesses when they would let us.

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